From the inspiring silent protest organized by Hannah Stoudemire to the main conversation at Skylight Clarkson Sq, it has become clear just how the #BlackLivesMatter is linked to America fashion.
To that end, Public School and DKNY designer Maxwell Osborne penned an impassioned open letter for W Magazine on why he stands with the movement and joined the peaceful protests, and urges the industry to join him. Find excerpts from Osborne’s letter here.
“I could have sat at my desk and just focused on the work piling up. I could have just posted a picture on Instagram. But something compelled me to go into the streets last week and join the movement.”
“As a designer, they’ve made me question what my role is in all of this, what can I do? I decided that I could no longer just sit on the sidelines.”
“As a black man in an overwhelmingly white industry, race is never far from my mind. But the Black Lives Matter movement has underscored the still astounding disparities African Americans face – at their homes, at their places of business, at the voting booth.”
“I write this open letter to encourage the fashion industry to not just continue the dialogue of race in America, but to do something about it. Fashion exists in a world of make believe. Our job is to offer an escape from everyday life and a fantasy of glamour and beautiful clothes. It’s easy to forget the real world with its very real problems. But it doesn’t have to be that way. Fashion is always at its best when it looks outside of itself for inspiration and holds up a mirror to society. Sometimes we do that on the runway and sometimes when we come together as an industry and take up important causes, like so many of our peers have and continue to do with breast cancer and HIV/AIDS.”
“Let’s not turn our backs on the young black men and women of tomorrow. Let us learn from our fear and the stereotypes that have bound many for so long and stop perpetuating hate and casual discrimination. It is far easier to hate than to love, but what Black Lives Matter taught me is that you can only be silent for so long before you feel parts of yourself die.”
